![]() God builds buildings and He builds cities and He also builds families. He alone can make these efforts succeed and bear fruit for eternity. Psalm 127 reminds us that as we labor to build, and watch to protect, and toil to provide food, our ultimate and constant dependence must be on God. 3–5), which we will in the next few verses.Ĭhildren are God’s Gift and Blessing to Us In the same way, if we are not working with God and following His “script”, if God ain’t in it, we are working in vain. To use another Star Trek reference, when Gena and I went to a Star Trek convention a couple of years ago, we met an actresses who said, “If it ain’t on the page, it ain’t on the stage.” What she meant was that actors and actresses should follow the script. As our Lord Jesus reminded us, “Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). God commands us to “build” and “watch” and “toil”, but we must always remember that our work to do any of these is in vain apart from the grace and power of God. In our world, we must work with God or we, too, work in vain. In Star Trek, there was a group of people who used to say, “Resistance is futile.” What they meant was that resisting them, working against them, was a waste of time and effort. In this psalm, the word “vain” means doing something that is futile or wasted. This is the same word used in the third commandment, “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.” That means that we should not say the Lord’s name in a way that makes it worthless or abuses it. In the first two verses, the word “vain” is mentioned three times. Likewise, a farmer must be diligent to work, but he must have faith and trust in God-in this case by receiving the sleep God wants to give to His beloved. This psalm may have reminded pilgrims that Jerusalem was not a place of strong walls, a strong military, or of some magical protection, but that its security depended on the Lord. All the weapons and defenses of man are pointless unless God blesses those efforts. A city is not secured by its defenses, but by the protection of the Lord. ![]() Solomon also wrote that God watches over a city. God builds and blesses the household as we will see in the following verses. Another way to understand “house” is the family. Unless God had blessed the building of the Jerusalem temple, those who attempted to build it would have labored in vain. The Jews who read this psalm could have understood the “Lord’s house” to be the temple in Jerusalem. We can understand the word “house” in at least two ways. Even though He certainly rested on the seventh day of creation, from which we get the fourth commandment to rest on the Sabbath, God is still at work in various ways. One thing these verses say is that God is at work. 2 It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil for he gives to his beloved sleep. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. Psalm 127:1–2 1 Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. They remind me that without God’s work or blessing, all of our work is pointless. The first two verses have been so important for me to remember over the past few years. No human task succeeds apart from God’s will. The basic theme of this wisdom psalm is that without the Lord’s blessing, all human toil is worthless. Just imagine them singing this song that declares God as the Master-builder and Life-giver. This psalm is one of fifteen psalms called “Songs of Ascents” that were written for pilgrims who were going to Jerusalem to celebrate seasonal feasts. In this passage, Solomon gave us a picture of how precious children are. As such, children are precious reminders of the sacredness of all human life. Clearly, God is the Giver, Designer and Planner of human life. David also acknowledged that God knew him and had written all his days on this earth before he had lived a single one (Psalm 139:13-16). ![]() David declared God had “fearfully and wonderfully made” him. David acknowledged that God formed him and knitted him together in his mother’s womb. He also appointed Jeremiah to be a prophet before he was born (Jeremiah 1:4-5). God told Jeremiah that He knew him before He formed him in his mother’s womb. All life is given by God, who is intimately involved in it. We uphold the sanctity of all human life He created. The front cover of the bulletin today reads: We believe in Jesus Christ Who is the Life. Arrows in the Hand of a Warrior (Sermon Text) ![]()
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